Well done winners! I am excited to read your stories. Also congratulations to the other finalists, I'm glad it was made so difficult for the judges to decide! Now I just have to wait for my entry-plus results, I am anxious to see what they say.

First, as the others have already stated, a hearty congratulations to those who made the final cut. Though I missed the final 6 mark, the fact I hit the top 30 is something I take as an honor. This whole contest has been surreal. I didn't make it into the final 6. The bad is obvious - I didn't send the story in to come away not making the final cut. The good is there though as well. This story made it in the top 30 out of 1700 entrants. The book is a British publication, and I cannot express how important it is that I impressed a group of readers out of the USA, especially since they were considering it alongside 6 well-established authors.

The question now is - what do I do with it? My short answer is - It's not done. Though the story was conceived haphazardly, it was also one that continued to grow as I considered its possibilities. My hope? You'll see this one again!

Now, with all that said, thanks for a great idea and wonderful opportunity. I do have one question - given the book is delayed, are we still able to preorder a copy? I delayed doing so because... well, I wasn't sure if I'd need one or lots more (cause you know I would've been hit up by my family for a copy of the book). With that settled, I'm ready to make my order!

Hello everyone, I just thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am one of the very happy winners from the anthology competition this year. I wrote the short story, Sharag's Shank, back in May 2012 and have continued to write about the characters ever since as they refused to leave me alone, constantly nagging at the back of my mind. I have been writing ever since 1996 but this is the first time I have ever submitted a fantasy story into a competition so I am really excited and overwhelmed with being listed as one of the winners. I currently live in the sunny south west of the UK near the moors in Devon together with my wife and two children. Managing to fit writing in around a busy family life and shift work can be tough but when I achieve something like this it makes everything so worthwhile.I'd just like to finish up by saying a big thank you to Fantasy Faction for giving me this opportunity and for the encouragement it has given me. I hope to meet lots of new friends on the forum and look forward to speaking to some of you soon